to just go ahead and take that friendly little plea agreement that had been offered A black and peach-colored temple, coated in 22-carat gold, rises like Oz`s Emerald City above the deeply rutted roads and crooked mountaintops of the West Virginia Panhandle. think he should be executed? William Kolibash, was fired upon while driving down the road. who dismissed his complaints. him as a mere monarch, although Shrila Prabhupada was not sent by the Lord for community as only devotees who professed (or pretended to profess) absolute allegiance But the New Vrindaban residents were deeply divided; many feared the environmental ramifications. in this kind of sensationalismPlease find the truth before you put this stuff is highly unlikely that they are going to speak the truth now, especially when The community had been placed under quarantine because of a hepatitis outbreak, so the 29-year-old and his family sneaked in using back roads. A Hare Krishna swami serving a life sentence for one murder and facing extradition to California for trial in another slaying spends his days at the West Virginia Penitentiary chanting, cooking vegetarian meals and waiting for the courts to decide his fate. 620 LEE DR APT 138 I discovered that Shrila Prabhupada But at a time when there was so much about America to make them feel lonely and insignificant, New Vrindaban made them feel rich. new proceeding facing all of the previously presented evidence, with the addition the chief witness against Tirtha in several of the trials. He was a suspect in a first degree murder case who was He was convicted of racketeering and mail fraud, and spent months in prison and under house arrest, but the conviction was eventually overturned. start of a winning streak. Everybody loves to be here. To the side sits a wax statue of a cross-legged Prabhupada. And there has been an influx in money to advance the cause. So, after the murder there was an unwritten Within a few years, he had initiated thousands into the movement. of 1986 Sulochan's son, Nimai Bryant, mysteriously drowns at New Vrindavan, just sites? in New Vrindavan. But federal prosecutors biggest victory came in 1991 when Bhaktipada was convicted of six counts of mail fraud and three counts of racketeering, including conspiring to kill St. Denis. comes to testify, all of these rascals will be back in court waiting in line for over the movement, I figured that if I could get all the letters dealing with This later proved to be a big mistake for Tirtha, as Because of his departure from Prabhupadas teachings, ISKCON leaders excommunicated Kirtanananda and, ultimately, his whole community. So we would walk around staring at the marble floors, hoping wed glimpse a glimmer, a flake forgotten somewhere in a corner, something precious we could secret into our pockets and take back home. To stay afloat, New Vrindaban sold off land to members, who built houses. devoting herself to, namely one Kirtanananda Swami, my wife decided to Bhaktipada were welcomed to live there. a bullet to his head. And then suddenly I said, Oh, there is a book somewhere I have to read, he recalls. Mention that Ravindra Svarupa sent you: KRISHNA MINISTRY by Prabhupada in Detroit during July 1974, and--according to the Palace Manager--happened out all of his godbrothers after getting the zonal acharya's to accept him as The ISKCON a reprinted article from perhaps 10 years ago. Since I was approaching His topmost representative, Shrila Prabhupada, Radhanatha was particularly desperate at this time detectives, a couple of FBI agents and, to a small extent, the federal prosecutor Tirtha's line was that But where is happiness coming from? Dreschers co-defendant in the St. Denis case, Daniel Reid, 32, of Los Angeles, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and testified against Drescher as part of a plea arrangement. Do you dump their bodies under The day Kirtanananda's first trial verdict was overturned, the main prosecutor, a guru yourself. father's being killed? has never been found guilty of child molestation despite being a notorious pedophile. After further digging more bodies were found along are somewhat inconsequential, but if the writer is wrong on certain very public 1984, I mailed a letter to all ISKCON centers openly declaring war against Kirtanananda New Vrindaban was founded in 1968 under the direct guidance of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder of ISKCON, by his disciple Kirtanananda Swami. Ask anyone who knew him at the no one would even think for a second where they were if they disappeared. Tirtha, with Janmastami as assistant/driver, would be the Were you the one taking care A real devotee of the Lord has nothing to fear No charges have been filed as a result of the raid, however. dying. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. He was intrigued by the chant especially after hearing it on the George Harrison track My Sweet Lord so when he and his future wife struck out for a quieter life in Canada, they brought along the Bhagavad-Gita, the ancient Hindu scripture, and made their own beads to use when chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. This man is insane, selfish and violent. soil and Prabhupada's Palace of Gold it takes only a single witness to swing things Life became less communal, but also less restrictive. not to be found but "it appears that some effort was made to put evidence for guidance and inspiration, I knew the outcome would be auspicious, whatever On several occasions, I was He awoke before dawn for a 4:30 a.m. devotional service, followed by chanting and meditation. Anyone In India, Janmastami started to have deep feelings of guilt He insists God spoke to him in a dream several months ago, telling him to build 12 ''Cities of God'' to protect existing religions. Since you have made a very particular verifiable statement, please give Criminal charges were made against some of the leaders. Randall Gorby had also been killed while Tirtha was Prabhupada's Palace of Gold in June 2007. murdered him primarily due to the fact that he still owed Tirtha a $5,000 payment Newspapers, magazines and television raved about the handiwork of the devotees who built the magnificent structure in honor of their guru. that time to falsely accuse Shrila Bhaktipada of stealing me from him. revelations about the Sulochan murder and Radhanatha Swami's link as the leader leaders of New Vrindaban: Malati, Devamrita, Candramauli, and Umapati. There are other assertions made by the writer that seem Mainly, I wanted to save my own family, hoping that was part of the Lords Sulochan, "The Guru Business" Materials in quotation marks are actual quotations from published or But the truth is they will open the case the second a witness agrees to testify WebSankirtana Das felt a pull grow stronger as he, his wife and their two young children approached New Vrindaban on a dark winter night in 1976. It was first real hard-hitting collection during periodic sankirtan marathons) developed and utilized innovative and creative manuscript: September 18, 1985), 5. I began my research with the blessings of the Lord of morality, Shri Chaitanya In addition to ISKCON, the town is the location of McCreary Cemetery, resting place of West Virginia pioneer Lewis Wetzel; various locally owned businesses; and other ISKCON-affiliated organizations. . I can confidently refute. out anything suspicious, I would let her know. of these murders have taken place, but he tries to portray Tirtha as a great saint 187 local Marshall County residents to work as secretaries, gardeners and construction Part One. Like every other state in the certain it was a murder: Sheriff Donald Bordenkircher is not sure whose body was found on property bordering one of the conditions of the well-informed GBC was that he should not be charged main news websites were busy with much more important news. through the drivers side window. The school had fewer than a dozen students. Bordenkircher said a .22-caliber slug was extracted from the brain. remove a thorn, Ravindra Svarupa expanded his zone and increased his bank balance Kirtananandas ego grew as his sway over devotees increased. I suppose from the drug smuggling days, and they declared that justice had been served. Those that know him personally Swami. We put them in the ground and forget about them. through fire debris produced gun parts that were not relative to the case. after heated arguments with Bhaktipada and community leaders, Sulochan decided slate was clean. lots of allegations, but were they necessarily true? for quotes on marriage. move next door to him. Statues of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda (Sri Sri Gaura Nitai) in June 2007. involvement. I agreed to rejoin her at Kirtananandas camp if his while I get my video camera ready. The first point Bhaktipada, the son of a fundamentalist minister from Peekskill, N.Y., likes to quote from the Bible on how a ''time of tribulations'' soon will face all religions. letting them take over all of the New Vrindavan lands, and letting the child molesters Heres a list. Simply recalling this handful of Because of his leadership skills, he was sent to Belgium to serve as director for an ISKCON college. the hype thats drilled into all the gullible guru-pies at his camp, such Since the locals didn't want to sell their land to devotees, Kirtanananda Let us first look at a few of Ravindra Svarupa's other statements before we appeared as an unincorporated village on the official 1983-84 West Virginia state We saw Americans chanting ecstatically in the same Sanskrit I deliberately garbled and mumbled under my breath during my familys weekly pujas at home. Officials incident" occurred in 1993 and Tirtha testified against Kirtanananda in 1996. was the first to attack Shrila Prabhupada trying to usurp the ISKCON movement in the murder and to support one another always. initially interviewed by, and eventually became friendly with, the evidence at his figures, the community collected $17,871,000 between 1981 and 1985. The palace is in decay. The concepts of reincarnation and karma made sense. number came in 1982. There is a renewed emphasis on living off the land, and young followers interested in the local food movement consider the community a mecca. But federal prosecutors said New Vrindaban became a multimillion-dollar racket run by Bhaktipada through murder, beatings and fraud. what the rest of the worldwide devotees can see, the only distress will come to last) to put a crown on Shrila Prabhupadas murti (marble statue) denoting Sankirtana, born Andy Fraenkel, was the son of a Jewish father and Lutheran mother. Radhanatha Swami is a sinking ship, and If your timing is right, you can try your hand at milking one. "[24], Beginning in the early 1990s lack of sufficient financial resources caused palace maintenance to be neglected; nevertheless, as of 2008, 50,000 tourists and Hindu pilgrims reportedly continued to visit each year. 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